Pastoral Relief and Retreat

I am Pastor at Poquonock Community Church, Congregational (CCCC) in Windsor, CT. My wife Jama and I live in Wetherfield, CT.
We'd like to invite you to Terre Haute -- High Ground -- That's what Jama and I call the retreat space on our property. We offer free intentional get-away retreats. We'll feed you and house you and give you space to be with the Lord. All are welcome; no questions asked.
This blog is my daily devotional journal. I write it because it is so easy to go for weeks without ever taking the time to be alone with God. Writing helps me develop a discipline I need.

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Monday, October 17, 2011

The Children of Wisdom

“But to what shall I compare this
generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to
their playmates,

“‘We played the flute for you, and
you did not dance;

we sang a dirge, and you
did not mourn.’

For John came neither eating nor
drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and
drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax
collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.” (Matthew
11:16-19 ESV)

Jesus often points to the sins or excesses of a particular
group.He often rails at the Pharisees,
for instance.But here he is speaking
against an entire generation of
people. Specifically, he’s talking
about a generation of his Jewish contemporaries.He speaks of them as if they were children
playing a game of pretend.

Children’s pretend games are nearly always based in
something they’ve seen their parents doing.Kids play dress-up and act out the lives of adults.They go to the office.They make dinner in the kitchen.In this case, they have a festival or a
funeral.The problem with these fantasy
games is that little kids can’t write scripts very well, and a group of them
will all have a different idea of what happens next.“Wait Johnny!I was playing the pipes.You’re
supposed to dance,” and things like that.

That’s about how sophisticated Jesus says his contemporaries
are when it comes to spiritual matters.They saw John the Baptist fasting and praying and assumed that because
he was dressed oddly and spent much of his time out in the desert that he must
be demon-possessed.They see Jesus going
to parties at the homes of tax collectors and they assume he’s just there for
the free food and drink.

But what was coming out of all that fasting?What were the results of Jesus eating, and
yes, drinking with tax collectors, prostitutes, and other undesirables?). There’s a great play on words in the original
language.Jesus calls this generation
“children” and then goes on to say, “wisdom is known by her children.”

The “children” of John’s fasting people from all over Israel
and Judah who came out and be baptized by him in the Jordan.The “children” of Jesus going to the dinner
parties and hanging out with sinners and tax collectors were that he was in the
right place when a woman came weeping in joy because she was forgiven
much.He was where he needed to be so
Zaccheaus would decide he’d had enough of defrauding people.

We well might have cautioned John the Baptist about his
weird behavior and told him to change his hair shirt or told Jesus to be
careful who he hangs out with.On the
other hand, how many people who spend their time only in safe places or with
safe people can say they’ve been leading large numbers of people to repentance
or turned their hearts to the Lord?